


Always Something New

by amonkeysue



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thor (Movies)
Genre: F/M, Lewis family, Playing StarCraft, Prank Wars
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-24
Updated: 2015-10-01
Packaged: 2018-04-23 03:42:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,143
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4861679
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amonkeysue/pseuds/amonkeysue
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A collection of several "Firsts" as inspired by prompts from the mcuwintershock tumblr's Wintershock Challenge.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Living History

**Author's Note:**

> It's amazing how quickly you can come up with an idea when you're avoiding some homework. :)
> 
> (I also realized that I have too many ideas for Darcy's family bouncing around in my head, but this one works for today!)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> PROMPT: First time meeting parent's/family

As far as visits went, Darcy had opted into making appearances at the major holidays since the start of her internship with Jane, so long as the world wasn’t ending for, oh, what time again?

Extended absence made her lean towards needing to introduce her family to Bucky. They probably needed the reassurance that no, just because she had moved to New York did not mean her boyfriend was the type of person to make her the victim on your run of the mill crime show. He did have a unique life history, but she was _not_ ready to tell her family about that.

That would be a little too much for a weekend, least of all when Bucky was busy enough running through names and basic facts about her family members.

She had insisted on driving out all the way to Boise. Some of it was to avoid any possible questions about why a Stark Industries aircraft was dropping her off. Some of it was because she loved driving up to the mountains.

A little bit more of it was because of the alone time with Bucky it had merited her.

“So this is the ‘City of Trees?’” he wryly asked while peering out his passenger side window.

Darcy clicked her tongue. “Technically this is a desert area. This is a lot of trees for being out here.”

He nodded. “Fair enough. Still is a bit deceptive compared to some of the places I’ve been though.”

“Our landscape is a bit more than cacti and tumbleweeds, thanks, even if those do sometimes blow into our yards. Remember, we’ve gotta have the land good enough for our potatoes.”

“How many minutes are we out from your parents’?”

“Like 15.” Darcy broadly grinned and quickly looked up from the road. “You ready?”

Bucky offered a groan in response. “I know I’m imagining it to be more of a big deal than it’s supposed to be, but I’m still worried. First impressions are rough, especially when you’re the guy with long sleeves and a glove on one hand.”

“Which you know you don’t have to do. Prosthetics aren’t some exceptionally strange thing, Buck.”

“Even if I go without the glove, I’m still gonna do the sleeves. There are less questions that way.”

Darcy reached over for his hand and gave it a comforting squeeze. “You do whatever makes you most comfortable.” She waited a long moment before putting her hand back on the steering wheel and letting out a small laugh. “You got all your small talk facts down still?” They stopped as their traffic light turned red. “We’re only a few minutes away now.”

Bucky attempted to stretch his legs. “If I forget anything I’ll just talk about you.”

“You are literally the cutest.”

He smirked. “I know.”

The smirk was replaced by his resting face as they pulled into a house’s driveway. Darcy stopped the car and they both sat motionless for a second.

“Okay,” she breathed out, “here we go.” She unbuckled in time with Bucky and waited for him to come around the car and open her door. “Luggage later.”

Bucky took Darcy’s hand and let her lead towards the front door.

It was thrown open before they were less than five steps away, and Mama Lewis hurried out to give Darcy a hug.

“Hey Mom,” Darcy squeaked out, suddenly afraid that she would have to struggle for breath until her mother released the hug. Darcy gestured to Bucky beside her. “So this is my boyfriend, James.”

Darcy’s father had also stepped outside and stepped up with a warm smile to shake Bucky’s hand. “So you’re the young man I’ve heard bits and pieces about.”

(‘Daaaad,’ Darcy silently groaned in the background.)

“Yes sir.”

“Your name is James? And you look just like a certain Howling Commando and best friend of Captain America?!” a young voice exclaimed as the speaker burst out the door. 

Darcy nearly paled. Right. Her younger brother Nathan was a huge Captain America fan. Ever since she had moved to New York she had been forced to deflect the conversation with him away from whether or not she’d had any Captain America sightings. He also knew all of the Howling Commandos by heart.

She sometimes forgot that Bucky was technically a walking historical figure.

“Wait a second Nate,” Darcy’s mother began to warn.

Nathan stepped closer to Bucky and his eyes immediately widened. “You are him!” The fourteen year old nearly jumped up and down. “Were you also frozen in ice? How did you survive? Did it hurt?”

A blank mask slid over Bucky’s features.

Recognizing his surprised response, Darcy slipped her arm around his and leaned in against his side. She fought to keep from chiding Nathan for asking several of the wrong questions. He didn’t know better, but she still had to stop him from prying in too far. 

“Hey,” she asked, keeping her voice as sweet as possible, “can we take this inside before Nathan tells the whole neighborhood what’s going on out here?”

She was somewhat relieved when Nathan blushed and turned to hurry inside.

Her mother and father both gave her curious looks. “This got confusing really fast.”

Bucky lightly huffed. “That was an unexpected introduction.”

“I did not realize he would do that,” Darcy apologetically murmured as they started inside.

“Y’know what they say about the smart ones…” Bucky trailed off before putting his arm around Darcy’s shoulders. “Guess I’ve got a story to tell. I’ll keep it brief.” Probably no mentioning the details of his past several decades.

Darcy heaved a sigh. “This is quite the first meeting.”

“There’s always something interesting going on around you, doll. This is the thing today.”

“Now I have no excuses to hold off on getting him Steve’s autograph.”

Bucky couldn’t hold back a small chuckle. “I think I’m glad we came out here.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Why Boise? I honestly don't know, other than it sounded good in my head and I'm always going to reflect on the irony of it being called the "City of Trees."


	2. Marines, Roaches, and Zealots, Oh My!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> PROMPT: First time playing Mario Kart/Skyrim/WoW/other games together

Through Tony’s various game nights, he had already been introduced to Super Smash Bros and was finally rocking it on Rainbow Road. Some days there was something nice about playing a Lego game and just smashing and building things with whoever else happened to be around.

Darcy leaned her head against Bucky’s shoulder. “By any chance can I interest you in learning to play a few special games?”

He knew Darcy and Jane had a habitual game time, each sitting at a desk or table with either a laptop and mouse or a desktop computer. Occasionally it turned into exasperated outcry and triumphant laughter.

All truth be told, Bucky had not paid too much attention to their gaming. It was their thing. 

“That’s not exactly a good amount of detail to go after, doll.”

She shifted to sit up straight. “Are you familiar with Blizzard Entertainment?”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Okay, I’ve got some work to do.” Darcy stood and grabbed Bucky’s hand to help pull him to his feet. “They’re a video game company. Diablo, World of Warcraft, and what I personally consider most important, StarCraft. I’m also fond of Heroes of the Storm,” she explained while they walked up to her set of rooms.

“Is that what you and Jane play?”

“Yep. Which one are you interested in starting with? StarCraft is a real-time strategy game while Heroes of the Storm is a battle arena set up in multiplayer.”

Bucky blinked. “I also have no idea what that’s supposed to mean.”

“Oh. Right.” Darcy pursed her lips and sat in front of her laptop. Bucky pulled a chair around from the other side of the table. “Do you want to develop and control an army or just a single character?”

“What’s easiest to learn?”

Darcy gave a one shouldered shrug and opened the laptop. “They’re both straightforward, and both obviously benefit from some finessing. It’s up to you, really.” She absentmindedly shook her head from side to side as the laptop booted up and impatiently tapped a finger against the table surface.

Bucky reached to put an arm around her shoulders. “You’re the expert here.” He leaned forward as Darcy logged in and pulled up something called Battle.net. “Looks like it jumped straight to StarCraft.”

“It’s what I last played, but sure, we’ll do it since you don’t want to pick anything.” Darcy adjusted her glasses before twisting to face Bucky. “Zerg, Protoss, or Terran?”

He blinked again. “Darce, I know nothing.”

She quickly rephrased her question. “Biological aliens, technologically advanced aliens, or humans with a bunch of technology and manpower?”

“What’s the best beginner option?”

Darcy very nearly heaved a sigh while Bucky guiltily smiled. “Tell you what,” she said while turning back to the laptop, “I’ll start you on the Wings of Liberty campaign, m’kay? You’ll be playing as Terran and it’ll help guide you through what you need to know, since you can’t make up your mind.”

“Sorry.”

“Maybe once you get an idea of the basic gameplay and go up against some Zerg and Protoss you’ll have a better idea of what you want to play.”

“Sounds like a plan.” He obligingly took the mouse from Darcy and grew silent as the opening cinematic began. Halfway through he leaned over to whisper, “What’s going on?”

“He’s being fitted into marine armor and is being sent out. You can pick up on the rest,” Darcy whispered back.

Bucky bemusedly smiled and refocused on the game. Between the list of objectives in the upper left corner of the screen and small prompts from Darcy, he easily blew through the first few missions, and would have kept going if she hadn’t asked him if he wanted to try the training mode with the Zerg or Protoss.

“It’ll even walk you step by step through what you need to do,” Darcy said.

“Sure, I’ll give ‘em a go.” 

Bucky followed Darcy’s instructions to navigate out of the campaign and over into training, where he deliberated for several moments over going Zerg or Protoss before he went ahead and started with the Protoss, not having seen them in his Wings of Liberty play through.

He immediately grinned as a pyramid like structure (the Nexus, the game said) and several mineral collecting probes appeared on the screen. “These little guys are kinda cute.”

“Good news, you need plenty more of them to get your economy running.”

He completed the Protoss training game and did the Zerg one.

Jane had come in during his Zerg game carrying a laptop, but Bucky had been busy enough warding off a marine squadron from his base that he hadn’t paid much attention as she and Darcy set up the laptop at the other end of the table.

Bucky did pay attention as Darcy kissed his cheek at the end of the game with a mischievous smirk. “You wanna go head to head?”

He raised both eyebrows. “You sure?”

From the other side of the table, Jane covered her laugh with a fist.

“Yeah.” Darcy went back to Jane’s laptop. “It’ll be great. You can keep on using my game and I’ll use Jane’s. We can do a few, see who comes out on top.”

He was not about to back out of her challenge.

“Okay.” Bucky rolled his shoulders back. “You get it going, I’ll click that I want to play or however it works.”

Darcy did a little dance in her seat. “I’m so excited.”

“I can tell.”

“Do you want to wait until after this first game to decide on three or two total games?”

“Three works.”

For the first game, Bucky played Zerg and Darcy played Protoss.

She scouted to see what build he was using. He tried to pursue her scout and almost didn’t pull those units back to the base in time before she sent in an assault wave. He focused on expanding his base and army.

“Don’t forget to put some anti-air on your mineral line!” Darcy warned. “I’m being nice and not attacking it right now!”

Jane suggested that Bucky get more creep tumors running across the map.

His push at Darcy’s base ended up vastly unsuccessful, with high casualties on his side.

She came at him with a little bit of everything and won the match.

“You’re getting into the groove!” Darcy encouraged. “And that may have been a little mean on my half to throw the Deathball at you, so sorry about that.”

“I think I’m going back to Terran,” Bucky wryly replied, “My Zerg gaming needs some polishing.”

“Whatever works.”

Darcy stuck with the Protoss, and Bucky was almost certain she her plays were sloppy on purpose to let him win.

She switched to Zerg for the final game while he switched to Protoss, curious to see if he could get the Deathball tactic going against Darcy.

Jane whistled as the game over popup appeared on Bucky’s screen. Darcy had pushed an early rush into his base that had effectively crippled his early economy, and finished him off a Nydus worm drop off of her forces directly into his base.

“Sorry Buck.” Darcy couldn’t stop from smiling.

He held up both his hands. “You’re the experienced one and I only started playing today. I don’t think I did too bad, so I’m happy.”

“Mmhmm.” Darcy had come around the table to sit back beside Bucky. “If you want to pick up on some tricks, you can always watch me and Jane go.” She looked up as her friend sat by her laptop. “If you’re up for it.”

“Two out of three?”

“Let’s go."

Bucky put his arm around Darcy’s shoulders again and watched.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> StarCraft really is wonderful, and some of this is definitely based off of games I've played with some of my family members. :)


	3. All's Fair in Love and Pranks

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> PROMPT: First prank war

“It’s just you and me, Buck, got it?”

Darcy stayed completely solemn while he expected her to break out into a teasing grin.

Bucky adjusted how his arm fell around her shoulders to buy him a few seconds of reflection on what to say given the mood. “This isn’t a life or death situation.”

She reached behind her back and laid a Nerf gun across his lap. “Clint and Natasha are proving to be against everyone and no one else is helping against them. I hear they’re getting Sam and Tony to ally with them. This must be stopped before we all end up the victim of their tried and true prank techniques.”

“Darcy, wait-.”

“Do you realize how perfect they are? Thanks to the SHIELD rookies, they’ve got this down to a science, and Avengers Tower is the perfect battleground. We have to take the fight to them.”

He held up the proffered Nerf gun. “And your plan consists of attacking them with darts?”

“I… okay.” Darcy defensively crossed her arms and overdramatically sulked. “So what’s your grand idea for payback then?”

Bucky retracted his arm from her shoulders and stood after setting the Nerf gun aside. “We’re dealing with Clint and Natasha. As you said, they have pranks down to a science.” He paused for a second. “Their pranks have been focused on people. We need to play a subtler, less focused game. Give some collateral damage so they don’t realize they’re being targeted until we’ve figured the winning prank against them.”

“I knew you’d be helpful.”

“Who do we want to start with?”

Darcy clapped her hands together. “The fridge.”

“Darce, that’s not a person.”

“I know. It’s a subtle start though.” She let Bucky help her to her feet before explaining. “We find some googly eyes and stick them on everything. It’s little, but it’s a springboard.”

He chuckled. “Okay, you get the googly eyes and I’ll help make sure the way is clear.”

\--

Operation Googly Eyes the Fridge Contents was a success, though not widely commented on.

Someone else switched out all the cereals with snack crackers.

Operation Air Horn was deemed too dangerous a concept in the Tower, given there was no saying who was bound to walk through a door at any given time and they did not want to startle the wrong person.

In keeping with some collateral damage, they sticky noted one of Tony’s cars. They left Tootsie Rolls out in the lounge that were really Smarties in the Tootsie Roll wrapper. They covered doorways and rooms in string during the middle of the night.

Clint and Natasha had been just as busy, zip tying the kitchen cabinets and any and all pairs of scissors they could find. Overnight they took all the movable furniture out of the lounge- not that it could be proven or that they would take credit. When the furniture came back the next night, it was all several inches aside of its original positioning. 

“I think it’s time we get a little more direct,” Darcy told Bucky while they were in her room blowing up several bags worth of balloons.

“We need to get JARVIS to let us into their room.”

Darcy appreciatively whistled. “Okay, you might be dreaming a little big there. Things in their doorway? Yeah. Inside the room?” She shook her head. “I don’t think that’s happening anytime soon.”

He shrugged. “We can do it. Besides, we go all in, get in their space successfully. They’re not going to have a response right away, if any, and it’ll send a clear message that this war is not going to be won without a fight.”

“If they catch us…” Darcy let the sentence hang ominously.

Bucky smiled and ducked over to kiss her cheek. “You forget that I’ve got experience at not being discovered.”

\--

She had let Bucky take care of the whole ‘getting into Clint and Natasha’s room’ thing. She’d believe it when it worked, but until then Darcy was at least keeping their supplies on hand.

It was more than a little exciting as the door swung open.

Small water balloons went in Clint’s shoes. After being careful to make sure they could reposition everything on the bed correctly, they sprinkled sugar in the sheets. All the hanging clothes in the closet were individually saran wrapped before being grouped together by color and wrapped again. Glitter went all over the dresser and the exterior room’s coffee table. Various candies were scattered amidst the drawers and piled in the bathroom sink. They unplugged several of the TV cables. The glitter also went on the ceiling fan blades and pillows.

Somehow, Darcy and Bucky managed to do everything and leave without either Clint or Natasha stumbling across them, which they considered something half of a miracle.  
Though Bucky had taken precautions to try and keep them away, Darcy had secretly suspected that Natasha would be able to sense that something was amiss.

Without discovery in the act, all that was left to do was wait for a response.

Darcy and Bucky shared a private high-five when Clint and Natasha both had visible glitter in their hair and made no comment on the matter.

They were almost certain they had won.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All thanks goes to the internet for providing me with half these ideas.


End file.
